Laura Deming

When she was 8, Laura Deming realized that we were all going to die of a disease called aging. Ever since, her driving passion has been to slow aging and eliminate age-related disease. She started working in a biogerontology lab when she was 12, and matriculated at MIT when she was 14. At 17, she was one of the youngest 20under20 fellows awarded $100,000 by Peter Thiel to pursue her venture full time. She is currently focused on the amelioration of age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

James Koppel

An entrepreneur at heart, Jimmy Koppel won admission to Carnegie Mellon – only to find that campus culture didn’t mesh well with his creative spirit. With the Thiel Fellowship, the software engineer has now won both $100,000 and a place in a community that suits him much better: Silicon Valley.

Christopher Olah

A 19-year-old hacker and math whiz, Chris Olah, is motivated less by entrepreneurship and more by "doing things that are awesome." With his $100,000 Thiel Fellowship, he'll focus on using 3D printing to help people improve their quality of life.

Noor Siddiqui

Noor Siddiqui served on the founding team of a Virginia nonprofit until
she opted for the Thiel Fellowship. Noor is working on building a more inclusive world by harnessing untapped productive energy at the base of the global economic pyramid.